Canelo to fight next on July 26th, likely against Carlos Molina

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Allan Fox: With Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s bitter experience at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. now behind him, Canelo is now back on the winning track after beating Alfredo Angulo last Saturday night by a 10th round stoppage in his first pay-per-view fight on Showtime where he was the main attraction.

Canelo would like to face the Sergio Martinez – Miguel Cotto winner, but neither of them will be available for Canelo’s next scheduled fight on July 26th. Judging by the way that Canelo gave WBA interim light middleweight champion Erislandy Lara the bum’s rush at the post-fight press conference when he had the audacity to ask him for a fight, Canelo likely won’t be fighting him again. In fact, Canelo flat out told him “you have to wait.”

Previous to the Angulo fight, the guy that was mentioned as being Canelo’s target after the Angulo fight is IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina (22-5-2, 6 KO’s). He’s got a title in his possession, and about as well known as Angulo, but with even less power than what we saw from Angulo last night. Molina is very likely going to be the one selected for Canelo to fight next, because this gives Canelo the opportunity to capture a world title without much risk involved.

There’s really not too many risky fights for Canelo at 154 when you think about than Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Lara. The rest of the guys are easy fights for him more or less. Like I said, you can scratch Lara’s name off Canelo’s list because he won’t fight him, and Mayweather’s off the list as well because there’s no point in either of them ever fighting again after Canelo’s one-sided loss to him. That leaves Cotto, who will be unable on July 26th, and Molina.

Since Canelo is interested in picking up a title at 154 to validate him in the eyes of boxing fans, then than pretty much narrows down his next fight to take place against Molina. There are some questions about the wisdom of Canelo taking that fight, though. As big as Canelo is now, he might not be able to make weight for the fight, and if he misses out on the weight, then he’d be fighting Molina just for the sake of fighting him.

It’s not worth it for Canelo to fight Molina unless his IBF title is on the line because he has no fan base whatsoever, and it’s unlikely that people would be eager to see Canelo fighting him on PPV. The other thing is there’s no money in a Canelo-Molina fight because like I said, Molina isn’t a popular fighter and he’d been seen as another sacrificial lamb for Canelo to pad his record with.

In an ideal world, Canelo would move up to the middleweight division where he clearly belongs right now and face Gennady Golovkin or Peter Quillin. Fans would really go for the idea of Canelo fighting either of those guys, and he’d likely win back fans and make a lot of money on PPV. However, Canelo and/or Golden Boy Promotions probably won’t be willing to take on a risky opponent like Golovkin or Quillin, because those guys would have too good of a chance of beating him.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said “Canelo wants to fight the best. He doesn’t need to wait for anyone. He just wants to entertain.”

It seems like Schaefer is saying things that conflict. He says Canelo wants to fight the best, but he then matches him against Angulo. He says he doesn’t need to wait for anyone, but the fact is in order to fight the best, Canelo will have to do some waiting for fights against the likes of Martinez or Cotto.

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